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Talk:Benjamin (currency)
Now, is this how it was spelled in the book, or is it a typo? ML4E 18:42, February 27, 2010 (UTC) :Definitely a typo. I didn't read it but "benajmin" gets no hits on Amazon versus four for benjamin. :They talk about the benjamin as though it were the base unit of currency. For one thing, according to the article it's a slang expression. Beyond that, it reminds me of Korea. The unit there is the won, but it's got so little value they don't even bother minting coins just for collector sets anymore. The 100 won coin is worth about ten cents US, and there's also a 500 won coin. (And a 10 and a 50, which you get in change once in a while and which are pretty annoying because the price for almost everything is a multiple of 100, and there's no sales tax to ruin the roundness of the number, or if there is it's built into the price--I was never clear.) They print bills in 1000, 5000, and 10,000 denominations, and there was a rumor they were going to start printing a 20,000 at some point. :Point is, people talk about how much something costs in won. No one says "Oh, this will cost a pile of baek-won (100 won) coins!" or "This will cost a pile of Lee Sun-Shins!" (The undefeated admiral graces the coin.) You typically think about how much something costs in 1000-won increments, since most people don't bother carrying the coins, which are far larger than US or Canadian coins. But it's one or the other. ::How does the size compare to the Canadian $1 or $2 coin? ML4E 19:02, February 28, 2010 (UTC) :::The 500 krw coin is very close to the size of a loonie. The 100 krw is slightly larger than a US quarter, which is pretty equivalent to a Canadian quarter. But it's only got 40% of the value, give or take, so you have to carry a lot more. The 50 krw is quite small, and the old 10 krw coins are the size of the 100 krw, cheaply made, invariably corroded, and worth one goddamn cent, so I always threw them out if I got stuck with them. There's a newer 10 krw coin, a tiny little thing, considerably smaller than any North American coin I know of. Turtle Fan 19:20, February 28, 2010 (UTC) :If $100 has so little purchasing power then surely the US of the Home Timeline is printing far larger bills, so they should be in the same boat. Or maybe they would change the currency so that the new unit is equivalent to 100 dollars at the time of the changeover, but surely they'd come up with a better name than benjamin. :One final thought on the matter, and it's that, between this and "Getting Real," we can made an Idea Found in Multiple Timelines about the dollar losing its value in the coming decades. Probably true in "Vilcabamba," too, though I don't recall it being mentioned specifically. Turtle Fan 20:44, February 27, 2010 (UTC) :::This is true. In fact both TLs have a small aluminium coin that isn't worth much. In GR its a $10 while it appears to be only $1 in XTimes. ML4E 19:02, February 28, 2010 (UTC) ::Your comparison to Korean won is probably closer to what HT had in mind. It's been a while, but I think The Gladiator had the best explanation of the HTL's currency situation. I do remember 1 benjamin was a simple disk made of common metals. TR 02:47, February 28, 2010 (UTC) :::Well they had hyperinflation at one point, even if they eventually got it under control. Before the war a single won had some purchasing power--not much, and granted it was in one of Asia's poorest countries, but it was still worth enough that you wouldn't throw it out. In the opening scene of my favorite Korean War movie, the hero buys an ice cream cone for two won. When I was living there the going rate was 1000-1200 krw. The currency had been stable at that point since the early 90s, when the East Asian markets all went under, and had been stable at about twice its current purchasing power before that for quite some time. Since I left it's out-inflated the dollar but not at an unmanageable rate. But there was hyperinflation in there in the bad old days of the 50s and 60s. :::The 21st century US in the Home Timeline must have had something similar happen at one point. When I was double-checking on Amazon earlier to make extra-sure that they dealt in benjamins and not benajmins, I found a scene in which some old geezer told some young kid that in his day a dollar was worth more than a benjamin was then. And he wore an onion on his belt, which was the fashion at the time. . . . :::Now that I think of it there was also a reference to inflated American dollars in ItPoME, which was also set in the twenty-first century, adding even more weight to the notion that 21st century inflation of the dollar is an Idea Found in Multiple Timelines. And then of course there's OTL--I couldn't place it but I do remember seeing a relatively reliable TV news program recently bemoan the fact that the dollar lost 30% of its value in the 00s. I think it was during the last rocket-powered spike in gas prices. Turtle Fan 05:07, February 28, 2010 (UTC) ::::I think it's appropriate to add that to the Multiple ideas. TR 18:21, February 28, 2010 (UTC) :::::I quite agree. ML4E 19:02, February 28, 2010 (UTC) ::::::Beautiful! I love adding to that page because of the joy of titling sections creatively. Turtle Fan 19:20, February 28, 2010 (UTC) Recent additions I'm not so sure the anecdotes from Gunpowder Empire and The Disunited States of America really add anything to the article. They seem a bit redundant, as it's pretty clear what a benjamin is without them.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 06:33, June 11, 2016 (UTC) The two anecdotes provide the relevant information that in Gunpowder Empire the benjamin was still a paper bill and by the time of The Disunited States of America it has become a metal coin. And The Disunited States of America gives a very full description of what the coin looked like. By the way, it would be a good idea for somebody with the right equipment to make a drawing of the coin (the description is on the very last page of the book), Blaise MacDuff, the Purple Dragon (talk) 07:17, June 11, 2016 (UTC) :A fair point, although some paring down is in order.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 07:24, June 11, 2016 (UTC)